Military experience people. What’s your realistic movie?

Major Payne

Only movie I ever went to with my dad wat Platton in 1987.

After the movie he said it was bullshite. He was in Vietnam 4 times and said the crazy party like atmosphere was crazy stupid. When not marching you were in a foxhole with your head down.

I do have a Time Life book with a picture of him there and he was in a foxhole with his head down. Lol

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What movies have you seen that most emulate what you experienced in your time serving?

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Blackhawk Down

Full Metal Jacket. Blackhawk Down. The latter is far better at documenting the absolute administrative frickery which impacted the Army the entire time of the early 90s, with Les Aspin and Clinton causing eye rolling week by week.

I worked on F-14 Tomcats for more than a decade, so Top Gun is kind of lived experience in a lot of ways.

DI’s trying to end you then all of sudden after the crucible try to shake hands and congratulate you.

The sights and sounds of things like Blackhawk Down and Lone Survivor - the way troops talk, the vibe, all ring true to me. To a degree that's true of American Sniper.

I didn't watch it, but the Alex Garland/A24 film from earlier this year - Warfare (basically Navy SEAL Ray Mendoza's film with Garland on the assist) - the trailer from that film felt spot on.

If you want to see the real thing, there is a stunning film that just doesn't get enough love on here - Restrepo (2010). If you want to know what it was like at that time, watch that film. It's one of the best documentaries of all time. I was in Iraq at almost the same time the as the actions were depicted in the film which was in Afghanistan. (My son would be in Afghanistan the year after the film was released.)

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Restrepo (2010). If you want to know what it was like at that time, watch that film

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I remember watching that documentary on Netflix shortly after it came out and it was a fantastic documentary.

It was shot and produced by two guys: Sebastian Junger and Tim Heatherington. After watching "Restrepo" I bought Junger's book called "War" and it somehow is even better than the doc at conveying exactly what it was like to be in that valley with those troops.

To illustrate how close and ingrained they got with soldiers while working, Heatherington was killed by mortar fire in 2011 or 2012 while embedded with rebel fighters in Libya.

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DI’s trying to end you then all of sudden after the crucible try to shake hands and congratulate you.

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This is their job. And, they absolutely create the best warriors

Stripes